$100 in 1955 is worth $857 in 2012,
because prices increased 756.7% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$857
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
756.7%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$857
Price difference ($100 base)
$757
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1955 → 2012
$857
$100 in 2012 → 1955
$11.67
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2012
Between 1955 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 756.7%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2012: the 1955 dollar
lost 88.3% of its purchasing power over
these 57 years.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1955 amount converts to 2012 at the same ratio, 8.57: $1,000 becomes
$8,567, and $10,000 becomes $85,669.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.57
$5.00
$42.83
$10.00
$85.67
$20.00
$171
$50.00
$428
$100
$857
$500
$4,283
$1,000
$8,567
$5,000
$42,835
$10,000
$85,669
$100,000
$856,694
$1,000,000
$8,566,940
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2012
Between 1955 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2179.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 194.3%, against 756.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$857
Medical care
5.64%
$2,280
Transportation
3.81%
$842
Food
3.81%
$841
Apparel
1.91%
$294
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1955: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1955 to 2012
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2012 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1955, at end
1955–1960
2.01%
10.4%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$145
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$307
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$488
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$643
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$814
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$857
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $372 by
1983, on its way to $857 in 2012; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $857; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2012: $100 is worth $857 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2012/